


Something Right

by SonjaJade



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: Maes Hughes Lives, Multi, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-26
Updated: 2017-03-26
Packaged: 2018-10-11 01:26:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,215
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10451889
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SonjaJade/pseuds/SonjaJade
Summary: Roy gets his vision back and gets the surprise of his life not long afterward.  But is it a good surprise or a bad surprise?





	

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the fmagiftexchange comm on Live Journal.

The morning that Dr. Marcoh came to fix my eyes was one of the most nerve wracking days of my life.  I was dressed and ready to leave the hospital, my dearest subordinate ready as well, and she rested her hand on my shoulder to reassure me that she was there while I struggled not to give in to the panic racing under my skin.  What if it didn’t work?  What if I would never see another thing for the rest of my life?  What if I never got to see the rebuilt Ishval?  Or what Amestris looked like without a military led government?  What if I never got to see Riza’s face again, giving me that frustrated little smile she sometimes offered me when our men were just a touch out of control, but silly enough to ease her irritation?

“Alright, Colonel,” Marcoh said as he dragged a chair to my bed side.  My unit was with me, Havoc, Ross and Knox were there as well.  “There’s enough left to heal your eyes, then this stone will be completely used up.  I don’t believe you’ll feel any pain, but there may be some pressure or a buzzing feeling.  That’s the best preparation I can give you.”

I nodded and told him, “Carry on, doctor.  I’m ready.”  One way or another, the matter of my vision would be settled once and for all, and I would either live my life cherishing every single thing I saw or live it gripping the handle of a seeing-eye dog and imagining my life in my darkened imagination.

I felt a hand on my face, old and worn and wrinkled, examining my sightless eyes with a bright flashlight, as I could feel the warm spot it projected onto my brow and cheek.  I could smell the antiseptic he’d washed his hands in, and behind me I could feel Riza’s warmth radiating from her palm outstretched over my shoulder blade through my civilian sport coat.

The flashlight clicked as it was thumbed off, and it thudded as it was set on the nightstand.  His clothing rustled, and I assumed he was retrieving the stone from his pocket.  I could hear the nervous shuffling of my men behind me,  and I noticed for a brief moment that Riza had stopped breathing.  All at once, she started rubbing my back and I realized something: she was just as nervous as I was.

“Okay, Roy,” Marcoh said calmly.  “Take a deep breath.”

He made me take a few actually, and I could feel in the pressure of the mattress beneath me that Riza was also taking deep breaths.  Then he told me to hold very still, and that’s when it happened.

The air around us crackled with electricity and the smell of ozone filled my nostrils.  I felt what I can only describe as a knitting feeling deep in the center of my head, as if nerves were being stitched together or new nerves were being grown in.  I heard Marcoh grunt and then felt a dusting of ash or powder, and I realized that the stone was all used up at that point.  The crackling stopped, the knitting feeling stopped, and my heart was jack hammering in my chest.  This was it, the moment when we would find out if it worked or not.

Before I could open my eyes, Knox stopped me.  “How do you feel, first?” he asked, his voice without the gruffness it usually carried.

“I feel fine,” I answered, eager to peel my eyelids apart and find out the verdict.

“Any pain?” asked Marcoh.

“No, nothing.  I feel normal.”

Quiet reigned for a moment, and then finally Havoc crowed, “Well, c’mon!  Let’s see if it worked!”

I didn’t even wait for permission.  I opened my eyes, then promptly closed them on the blinding light of the room, but I kept trying to see.  At first, all I saw was light, all the light of the world filling the darkness I’d lived in for over a week.  And as I became used to it, I could see shapes; outlines and colors began to fade into view.  I turned to my left, to the woman who had been beside me throughout everything on that awful day, and saw that she was healthy looking and not bloody, and her wound was bandaged and healing.  Her own eyes were brimming with tears as she realized I was looking at her and not in her general direction.

“Are you alright?” I asked, my hand finding hers and not giving a damn about who saw.

“Are _you_ alright?” she countered.

A big smile spread across my face as I took her in my arms and hugged her tight.  I felt her trying not to cry and failing, and for some reason I found that funny.  I laughed into her golden hair and kissed her temple, listening as my men were passing cash around.  Of course my first actions after getting my sight would be bet upon.  I wondered, though, if they’d bet that I’d get my sight back or that I would kiss my Lieutenant in front of everyone.

“How’s the view?” Knox asked.

I sighed as I let go of Riza, swiping the tears from her eyes with my thumb.  “Perfect.  Full color, sharp and clear…  The best vision I’ve had in my entire life.”  I smiled at Riza and her cheeks pinked.  It was good to see her face pink after having last seen it so pale and gray from blood loss.

Marcoh smiled as he began writing on a clipboard.  “One more look inside and you’ll be officially released.”   He finished scribbling and took the flashlight in hand once more- a huge, military issue thing that looked as heavy as it sounded a few minutes ago when I was still blind- and gave my eyes a second examination.  I blinked and squinted, and evidently that was exactly what he was hoping for, because he switched it off after a cursory glance at my corneas.  “Sign here and you’ll be free to go,” he smiled as he handed me his pen.

I scrawled my name on the line, handed the pen back, took Riza’s hand and stood up.  “Would you mind taking me home, Lieutenant?”

Her face lit up with a small smile, and she said, “Actually, Mrs. Hughes wanted you to stay with her and Elysia for a few days.  Just until she’s completely sure you’ll be fine on your own.  You know how she worries about everyone since Gen. Hughes’ passing.”

I was conflicted about her statement.  When Maes was alive, mentioning Gracia wanting to take care of me was our code for our play dates.  And I don’t mean play date as in board games and coffee- I mean play date as in strip poker with ropes and lots of lubrication and a tarp on the bed.  But since Maes’ death, we hadn’t played together at all.  I guess I assumed we wouldn’t do it anymore, both out of respect for our fourth partner, and for his grieving widow.

“Really I’m fine,” I protested.  “There’s no need for-”

“It’s only for a few days.  Besides, your mind needs a little break from all your studying and the military needs time to get your paperwork and men together for your mission.”  She squeezed my hand.  “Trust me.”

“Always,” I said as I let her hand go and turned to shake hands with my men.  “You’ve all gone above and beyond for me, and I cannot begin to tell you what your service means to me.”  They all looked as if they didn’t think they needed to hear such things, so I stopped myself from giving too much of a speech.  “Thank you all.”  I snapped a salute, and they returned it immediately.

Riza led me to the car and we drove to Gracia’s apartment.  When I asked what was going on, all Riza would tell me was that it was a surprise and that it had been a shock to her as well when she found out about it.  I carried a suitcase up the stairs with me, one Riza had packed for me herself, and together we knocked on that familiar door.

I heard some giggling, some shushing, then Gracia’s voice as she called out, “Just a moment!”  There was a soft sound that I wasn’t sure about, then the door opened a crack.  Her green eyes and sandy blonde hair peeked out and she glanced up and down the hallway.  “Quick, come in!”

I saw Riza grab the door knob and open it just wide enough so we could get in.  She was ushering me inside,  then quickly closed and locked the door behind us.  Gracia stood in her living room wearing a thin robe… and nothing else, as I noticed her nipples poking through the silky material.  She threw her arms around me, kissed me on the mouth and squealed, “I’m so glad to see you!  How are your eyes?”

I chuckled.  It was nice to see Gracia acting like her old self again.  “Clear enough to see these!” I grinned as I reached up and tweaked her peaks through her robe.  She hissed and swatted my hands away.

“Come sit over here on the couch,” she said cheerfully as she tugged my hand.  “I have such a surprise for you!”

“That’s what Riza said,” I replied as I took note of the way the robe hugged her hips and really framed her ass perfectly.  I’ve always been a leg man, but Gracia’s rear was really a sight.  I realized not for the first time since I’d gotten my vision restored that I was really happy to have eyes to see her body.  Speaking of which…

“Does it involve getting naked and spending a few hours together in your bedroom?” I asked as I looked at Riza, who had already come out of her civilian coat and left her heels neatly paired together by the door and my suitcase.

“Maybe if you play your cards right, soldier boy.”  She took my sport coat and started unbuttoning my shirt.  “Take your shoes off, you’re not going anywhere for at least three days.”

I sighed, then kicking my loafers off.  “So what is this big surprise?”

“Oh, Roy,” she said, her eyes shimmering with tears.  “It’s just the most amazing thing ever!  And even if I told you, you wouldn’t believe me.”  She hugged me again, then got to her feet, smiling wider than ever.  “I can’t wait any longer!  Riza, go sit next to him, just in case he faints or something!”

She turned and raced to the bedroom as Riza settled herself next to me, a little look of irritation on her face as she took my face in her hands and she kissed me deeply.  She tasted like coffee, probably stuff she’d drank at the hospital while we waited for Dr. Marcoh.  Her body was warm beside me and while I was interested in what Gracia had to show me, I wanted to let Riza keep going as well.

“You should’ve kissed me first,” she grumped.

“Someone would have seen us, my dear.  Besides, I had nothing to do with it, you saw what happened.”  I took a moment to look at her, really look at her.  Yes, I would never take my vision for granted again.  She smiled at me and laid her head on my shoulder.  I really could have died happy at that moment.

“Alright, Roy!  You ready?” Gracia shouted.

“As ready as I’ll ever be!” I called back.

“Close your eyes!”

I groaned.  I’d seen nothing but the backs of my eyelids for a week, I didn’t really want to close my eyes.

“It’s only a moment, Roy,” Riza cooed in my ear.  I shut them, but only because she asked me to.

“I’m ready!”

I heard footsteps, chuckling, both female _and_ male, and my instincts went on high alert.  As the sound of footsteps came closer, I wondered what in the world this woman had planned.  It was imperative that my relationship with Riza was a secret, and if Gracia had invited some random man into our playgroup…

“You look like you need to pull that stick outta your ass and loosen up a little.”

My eyes flew open at that voice.  What I saw was a man I thought was dead and buried in the middle of a quiet Central cemetery.  I saw the impossible standing before me, and I was immediately reminded of the gate of truth and all that I’d seen.  I scrambled backward, partially up the wall and heaving Riza up with me by the fabric of her blouse.

“Roy, calm down,” Gracia said as Riza’s fingers dug at mine, trying to get me to let go.

“Who did you get to do human transmutation!” I yelled.  I was scared all over again- scared like I’d been on the Promised Day.  “It’s not really him!”

“Roy, relax, it’s really me!”  He backed away and sat down in his chair, like he’d been alive all this time.  My heart was pounding in my chest as he spoke.  “When my body was taken to the coroner’s office, Dr. Knox wanted to find out right away what had happened to me.  Turns out I was barely alive on the slab, but he got me stable and smuggled safely out.  I woke up somewhere out west, and then they sent me on to Aerugo.”

I wanted with everything in me to believe that my best friend, my lover and partner was sitting in the room with us, that this was _really_ him, but I just couldn’t shake the feeling that it was just another fake, another incarnation of Envy that I’d have to boil down to nothing, and let Riza shoot me in the back anyway.

“Roy, your aunt vouched for him,” Riza said as she coaxed me back down to the couch.  “Maes is who got your sisters to safety, and who got Madame transported out to meet them.  Call her, he’s got the number you can reach her at.”

I realized there was something he could do to prove to me it was really him, without calling my dear aunt.  I rose and walked slowly toward him, his green eyes watching my every step.  I looked down at him, my guts twisting in anxiety and sadness.  I asked him, “Do you remember what you said to me the first time we slept together?  Back at the academy?”

He laughed, the same even tone that used to calm my fears at times and grate on my last nerve at others.  “Of course I do!  I told you just because we did it that one time, it didn’t mean I was a ‘fudge packing’ queer!  And that as soon as I got a girlfriend it was over!”

I sighed in relief.  He’d even said it with the same inflection as when he’d told me the first time.  “And what a liar you turned out to be,” I smiled as I hauled him to his feet and kissed him.  He held me tight to him as I cried over his return.  And I could feel Riza and Gracia near us, rubbing circles on our backs as we cried together.

“Hey, I can’t help that Gracia’s a closet freak, alright?” he said as I relished the rumble of his voice through his body and mine.

“Why didn’t you tell someone you were alive, you jerk!” I sobbed into his neck.

“Because at the time, we thought whoever wanted me dead might want you dead as well.  I was saving your life!” he sobbed back.

“I almost died twice!” I countered, laughing and crying at the same time.

His response was to hold me tighter and cry harder.  And when he apologized for his lack of communication with me, it was _my_ turn to cry harder.

“C’mon now, Roy,” he laughed as he pounded on my back.  “You’re crying harder than Gracia did!”

“I’m sorry,” I choked.  I pulled back from him, wiping at my eyes and trying hard to straighten up.  “Past couple of weeks have been hell on me.  Last couple of _months_ , to be honest.”   I snorted hard in an effort to keep my nose from running, but Gracia was quick to hand me some tissues.  I thanked her and Maes spoke quietly to his wife.

“Honey, would it be alright if Roy and I had some time alone?”

She hugged me and told me to take as much time as I needed, and I felt Maes taking my hand and tugging me toward the bedroom.

“I want you to tell me everything, from the night I was killed ‘til before you knocked on my door.”  Their bedroom smelled the same as it always had- like Maes’ cologne and fresh laundry.  The bed had not been covered by a tarp, but it was folded up on the edge of the dresser, ready to be unfurled should things take a sudden turn for the perverse.  Maes shut the door behind us and he crawled onto the bed.  He took off his shirt before tossing it under the window and laid back. Once he stretched his arms wide to me, I was drawn like a magnet to his chest.

My cheek rested on the warm skin of his pectoral muscle and I felt tears trying to return.  His strong arms held me tight to him and he rumbled in my ear, “Riza told me it was bad.”

“Yeah, real bad.”

He rubbed at my back and slipped down a few times to lightly pat my ass.  “Wanna tell me about it?”

For a long time I didn’t say anything.  I didn’t want him to know how weak his apparent death had made me, how close to madness I was over finding his murderer…  I didn’t want him to think I couldn’t reach my goal as Führer

So I started small.  I told him how the closer we got to discovering what had put him in the grave was what split my unit apart.  How sick I was at knowing Riza was under Bradley’s watch- under _Pride’s_ watch…   But eventually, I knew I was going to have to tell him how I nearly crumbled under Envy’s admission.

“I was a man with nothing left to lose,” I said quietly.  “I’d been collared and my leash held by the tightest of hands…  I had to obey and do exactly as they said in order to keep Riza alive.  And when I found out that I had your killer right in front of me… and the means to kill him…  I just- I lost it.  Like I _lost it_.”  I felt myself shaking in memory of all the anger coursing through my veins.  “And he was so smug about it.  That was the irritating thing.  He assumed I couldn’t kill him.  But I showed him I could, or would have if Riza hadn’t stopped me.”

I felt him nodding.  “Riza told me she had to draw on you.”

I sighed and snuggled deeper into his embrace.  “I wanted nothing in the world more than to kill that hunk of smoldering shit.  He’d taken you from me in cold blood and had hurt Riza…  I wanted to be the one to kill him and smear his blood on my hands.  I was so consumed by my want to hurt him for hurting me that I was willing to give up _everything_ to smite him from this world.”  My tears were back, but Maes didn’t try to quiet me.  He let them fall, and I continued, “But then Riza said she wasn’t going to live on after she shot me.  She said she was going to kill herself after the Promised Day, whether we won or not!  And at the time, I didn’t know why she would say that to me!  I thought to myself, ‘Why does she want to kill herself over my death?  Why would she do that?’  And it didn’t hit me until later that she would be haunted by the memory of killing me in order to save me from myself.  And though every fiber in my body was telling me to snap that last time to incinerate that lying, shape-shifting bastard, I didn’t.”

“That was the right decision, y’know,” he said gently as he kissed the top of my head.  “I know you, Roy.  You’re not a person who allows himself to be so riled up by anyone.  If you’d killed Envy like that, he would have still won.”

I sniffled.  “I know that now.  But at the time, all I could think about was me lying in my own blood, and Riza blowing her brains out and dying on top of me.  The thought of another person that I loved dying needlessly tore my guts up worse than when I thought I’d lost you.  I couldn’t do anything to save you.  But I could do something to save her.”

Maes gathered me up and kissed my dry lips.  His fingers threaded themselves into my hair and my mouth opened to receive the touch of his tongue.  There was nothing rushed or hurried about the way he kissed me.  It was as if he were soothing my emotional wounds with his kisses and I could only hug him tightly while he healed me.  Long moments passed before he let me go, and his own eyes were shining in the low light.

“I’m glad you didn’t kill him.  I’m glad Riza didn’t have to shoot you.  But most of all, I’m glad to be able to see you again, to feel your breath at my neck and taste the salt of your skin and tears.”  He smiled at me.  “I missed you like hell, missed my wife and my darling baby girl… But I knew that as long as I wasn’t around, I was doing more good than if I’d revealed myself to be alive.  And who knows what those monsters would’ve done to me if they’d known I wasn’t dead.”

I agreed silently with him, and then I felt his chest shaking as laughter bubbled within him.  “Hey… it’s been a long time since we were able to talk without you getting irritated at me.  We should have heart to hearts more often.”

I couldn’t help a chuckle at that as well.  “Quit breathing down my neck to get married and showing off your damn kid and maybe we can be like this more often.”

“Well, if you’d transfer Riza out from under your command, you could get married and have a kid of your own to brag about!” he said as he rolled me to my back, grinning wickedly as his fingers found and unfastened the buttons on my shirt.  He nudged my legs apart with his knee and thrust through our pants against me, and I groaned low as I felt his groin mashing helplessly into my backside.  “But if you did that, I don’t guess we could keep playing like this,” he growled in my ear.

“That’s not true!” Gracia said as she opened the door, bare naked with my lovely Lieutenant just as undressed as she was and two steps behind her.  “Riza and I decided that _if_ one day she and Roy were to get married that we would still be best friends and partners.  The only difference is that if they start trying for a baby, you’d have to wear a condom when you’re with her.”

Maes looked at me for a moment.  “Or we could take bets on who the baby looks like when it’s born?”

I frowned at him.  “No, she’ll carry _my_ baby and _mine only_!”

“But then we’d be family through our children!  And you could sire a kid by Gracia!”

“No way,” Riza said firmly.  “ _I’ll_ be the one to bear Roy’s baby.”

Maes crowed with laughter.  “Jeeze!  So decisive about where that man’s cum ends up!  Fine, fine,” he said as he rolled off of me and wriggled out of his trousers and boxers, leaving him in only his mismatched socks.  He took off his glasses and crooked his finger at Gracia.  “Are _you_ alright with carrying my spawn?”

Her smile was wide and beautiful, like I’d remembered it being from before, when Maes hadn’t died.  “Are you kidding?  I thought you'd never ask!”

“Do you mind if Riza sits on my face while she sucks Roy off?” he asked as Riza’s eager hands couldn’t wait for me to get out of my own clothing and slipped into my boxers.

“Not at all, dear,” she answered as we took our places.  And like we’d never missed a single beat, the four of us made love until we couldn’t move.  I was happiest then, when I’d realized I really had done the right thing in letting Envy go.  If I’d killed him, my heart would have been too black to enjoy the moment we were sharing.  Even if I got everything else wrong, I could sleep at night now.

I’d done at least one thing right on my rise to the top.


End file.
